Mortal Kombat: Deception
Mortal Kombat: Deception is a fighting game developed and published by Midway as the sixth installment for the Mortal Kombat (MK) series. It was released for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in October 2004, while a Nintendo GameCube version was published in March 2005. Mortal Kombat: Deception follows the storyline from the fifth installment, Deadly Alliance. The story centers on the revival of the Dragon King Onaga, who attempts to conquer the realms featured in the series after defeating the sorcerers Quan Chi and Shang Tsung, the main antagonists in the previous game, and the Thunder God Raiden, defender from Earthrealm. As such, the surviving warriors from the previous titles join forces to confront Onaga. Twenty-six characters are available to play in the game, with nine making their first appearance in the series. Deception contains several new features in the series, such as chess and puzzle games with the MK characters and an online mode. The Konquest Mode role-playing game (RPG) makes a return from Deadly Alliance, but follows the life of Shujinko, a warrior who is deceived by Onaga to search for artifacts to give Onaga more powers. In November 2006, Midway released Mortal Kombat: Unchained, a port for the PlayStation Portable, which adds new characters to the game. Series co-creator Ed Boon designed Deception to be an unpredictable fighting game, and included new features such as the mini-games as surprises. Several parts from Deadly Alliance such as combos and arenas were redesigned to be more realistic as well as more interactive. Deception has been well received by video game reviewers, who praised the fights and new features. The Konquest Mode, however, received criticism for poor voice acting. Several publications have awarded the game as the best fighting game in 2004. Gameplay The game's arenas are similar to those in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, but include new features such as unique weapons which players can use, and instant-death traps, which instantly kill a fighter who falls into them. The game also introduces the "Combo Breaker", a system which allows players to interrupt combos up to three times per match. In contrast to Deadly Alliance, in which characters had only one fatality finishing move, the Deception characters have two fatalities and a hara-kiri suicide move. The latter is used when the phrase "Finish Him/Her" is shown in the screen and the player is about to lose. Deception introduces several minigames that use MK characters. Chess Kombat is a minigame similar to classical chess, but uses player-selected characters as pieces that must engage in fights to take a square. Some pieces have certain abilities, ranging from impersonating their opponents to instantly killing one of the opposing pieces. It also adds Puzzle Kombat, a puzzle game similar to Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo which features super deformed versions of the MK characters that attack each other once a player gains an advantage in the game. The "Krypt" returns from Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, and serves as an interface to access extra content hidden in "Koffins". In Deception, the size of the Krypt was reduced from 676 Koffins to 400 Koffins. A new feature was the inclusion of Koffins that could only be opened through the use of keys that can be found in treasures chests from Konquest mode, or by defeating characters throughout the realms in the mode. Krypts in Mortal Kombat: Deception include 12 bonus characters while this was cut down to 6 characters in the GameCube version. Deadly Alliance's RPG-style game called "Konquest" also appears in Deception. Deception's Konquest mode explores the history of Shujinko, starting prior to his training with Bo' Rai Cho and ending with the beginning of Deception's main story. While mostly an adventure game, the combat elements take place in the normal Deception fighting mode. In Konquest, Shujinko meets Damashi, a being who requests Shujinko's assistance in collect six powerful items, the Kamidogu, to send to the gods. By the time he collects the six Kamidogu, Shujinko is an old man, having spent forty years completing his mission. However, Damashi is then revealed to be the Dragon King Onaga, who deceived Shujinko to obtain the six Kamidogu. Players seeking to unlock much of the bonus content in Deception are required to play through the Konquest mode. The game's arenas are similar to those in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, but include new features such as unique weapons which players can use, and instant-death traps, which instantly kill a fighter who falls into them. The game also introduces the "Combo Breaker", a system which allows players to interrupt combos up to three times per match.1 In contrast to Deadly Alliance, in which characters had only one fatality finishing move, the Deception characters have two fatalities and a hara-kiri suicide move. The latter is used when the phrase "Finish Him/Her" is shown in the screen and the player is about to lose. Deception introduces several minigames that use MK characters. Chess Kombat is a minigame similar to classical chess, but uses player-selected characters as pieces that must engage in fights to take a square. Some pieces have certain abilities, ranging from impersonating their opponents to instantly killing one of the opposing pieces.3 It also adds Puzzle Kombat, a puzzle game similar to Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo which features super deformed versions of the MK characters that attack each other once a player gains an advantage in the game.4 The "Krypt" returns from Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, and serves as an interface to access extra content hidden in "Koffins". In Deception, the size of the Krypt was reduced from 676 Koffins to 400 Koffins. A new feature was the inclusion of Koffins that could only be opened through the use of keys that can be found in treasures chests from Konquest mode, or by defeating characters throughout the realms in the mode. Krypts in Mortal Kombat: Deception include 12 bonus characters while this was cut down to 6 characters in the GameCube version.5 Deadly Alliance's RPG-style game called "Konquest" also appears in Deception. Deception's Konquest mode explores the history of Shujinko, starting prior to his training with Bo' Rai Cho and ending with the beginning of Deception's main story. While mostly an adventure game, the combat elements take place in the normal Deception fighting mode. In Konquest, Shujinko meets Damashi, a being who requests Shujinko's assistance in collect six powerful items, the Kamidogu, to send to the gods. By the time he collects the six Kamidogu, Shujinko is an old man, having spent forty years completing his mission. However, Damashi is then revealed to be the Dragon King Onaga, who deceived Shujinko to obtain the six Kamidogu. Players seeking to unlock much of the bonus content in Deception are required to play through the Konquest mode. thumb||